China Day 6: Temple of Heaven and Forbidden City

 On day 6, we took the high speed train to Beijing for some sightseeing. It actually took longer to get to the high speed train than it took for the train to get to Beijing. We spent several hours just traveling to Beijing, but it was still a really interesting cultural experience.

When we arrived at the Temple of Heaven, we spent several hours walking around the various exhibits and enjoying the beautiful architecture. Uncle Y had lots of interesting facts and information to share with us, and we learned a lot more than if we had gone by ourselves.

We made our way towards the Forbidden City, and stopped for lunch. The girls really wanted to have some steamed buns. Uncle Y also ordered some different types of porridge for us to try.

Then, we made our way to the Forbidden City. Again, we enjoyed the beautiful architecture and learned a lot of history from Uncle Y.

Apparently, it's common for people to wear traditional Chinese clothing here, for photo ops. Uncle Y identified the different dynasties of the many outfits we saw. Here's an example of some of the traditional clothing we saw. This woman asked to take a picture with us, so we asked for one as well.

After leaving the Forbidden City, we stopped for some snacks that the girls could eat while walking, since they were getting tired (both physically and emotionally).  We got sausage on a stick, and hawthorne berries on a stick. We also got these mochi-like desserts called rolling donkeys that are a northern China specialty.